Anybody who’s had a hard time remembering what store used to be on a certain corner, despite having walked past it every day for years, may understand how ephemeral New York can be, even when it comes to landmarks etched in stone.

One place to go to ward off those kinds of memory lapses is the seven-block stretch of Fifth Avenue between 14th Street and Washington Square Park in downtown Manhattan.

This well-kept neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood, whose residents tend to cite the avenue as their address rather than the encompassing Greenwich Village, looks very similar to the way it did in the early-20th century — if one squints away modern cars and traffic lights.

Some of its terra-cotta-trimmed high-rises, clearly proud of that timelessness, have hung on to the marquees and lobby desks they had in their earliest life as hotels, though apartments are now inside. Stone-lined alleyways have remained in place, too. Early this month, the Salmagundi Art Club, at East 12th Street, was hung with monochromatic paintings, just as it has been since 1878, when the annual black-and-white exhibition was inaugurated. And across the street at the brownstone First Presbyterian Church, organs regularly rumble, as they have for more than a century.

Nicknamed the Gold Coast, and perhaps the inspiration for the many others that have followed, the strip has also retained its ambience of exclusivity — though that need not put it out of reach, according to Amanda Ryman, a resident.

In 2012, a few months after graduating from college, Ms. Ryman, with her parents’ help, bought a wood-floored 370-square-foot-studio for $350,000 at 24 Fifth Avenue; after a thorough rent-versus-buy calculation, the family figured ownership was the smartest move, she said.

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The entrance to NYU faculty residences at 7-13 Washington Square North.CreditNicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Ms. Ryman’s building, a 17-story former hotel with 420 units designed by Emery Roth, is convenient to New York University, where she is studying to be a dietitian. There are few views that compare to the one she takes in during walks to class: the Empire State Building, anchoring a farther-off section of Fifth, and Washington Square Park’s arch, to her right in the foreground.

Nothing in Murray Hill, where many of her friends wound up after college, really comes close, Ms. Ryman added. “It’s homey, less concrete jungle and more residential,” she said. “It feels like an authentic New York place.”

The increasing numbers of young people carrying books — the New School, nearby, has recently widened its footprint — infuse the atmosphere with vitality. Their presence helps keep streets safe, says Marilyn Weigner, who has lived at the Brevoort on lower Fifth since 1979.

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At 14th Street, the large windows of 61 Fifth Avenue, center, and The New School University Center building, left.CreditNicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Named for a once-powerful Dutch landowner, the beige-brick complex, a rare postwar on the street, has 270 units. Her current two-bedroom cost $450,000 in 1982, and she and her late husband, Arthur, spent $300,000 renovating. Today, Ms. Weigner thinks, it could sell for $3.5 million.

Another big asset of the area’s 20-somethings, said Ms. Weigner, who works as a real estate broker: “People like to go where there is youth, and there is tremendous youth in the area.”

What You’ll Find

It begins in the turbulence of 14th Street, but lower Fifth seems much quieter than the avenue as it transects Manhattan farther north; having that effective dead-end at Washington Square helps.

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Fifth Avenue, looking south from 11th Street.CreditNicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Its buildings in general have a higher profile than those in much of the townhouse-and-tenement Village — they are around a dozen stories high, in most cases. They have doormen, too.

Much of this area is in a historic district, Manhattan’s first when created in 1969. One legacy is a line of no-nonsense red-brick co-ops atop limestone bases, built well before World War II. Another is found in those onetime hotels — like the desk in the dark-wood lobby at One Fifth, an Art Deco gem that tapers to a point. Then there is the ghost of the Hotel Grosvenor, at No. 35, now Rubin Hall, a New York University dorm.

Stanford White was busy here, with and without his firm. In addition to the Washington Square Arch, his imprint is seen in renovations to the Presbyterian church, as well as to the nearby Church of the Ascension. Salmagundi claimed him as a member.

Some modern development arrived before the historic designation. Besides the Brevoort, examples include Two Fifth Avenue, a white-brick colossus with a semicircular driveway and many terraces enjoying park views. A long-stalled four-unit condominium, still surrounded by a construction fence, gleams at No. 61.

Institutions of higher learning are spreading out. In 2010, New York University bought the longtime home of Forbes magazine, at No. 60, for $65 million; the building is set to empty out this year. And the New School’s University Center, a brass-and-glass tower at East 13th Street, recently opened as well, joining Cardozo Law School.

What You’ll Pay

In mid-February 30 condos and co-ops were listed on lower Fifth, and in buildings of similar size and pedigree on its side blocks, at an average of $1.88 million, according to Streeteasy.com.

At the high end was a duplex at Two Fifth, with five bedrooms, four baths and terraces on both levels, but in need of renovation, at $6.5 million, the data show; the most affordable was a studio at 24 Fifth, with parquet floors and beamed ceilings, at $359,000.

Brokers say that the area, because it’s so well established, is prepared for weathering ups and downs. There is evidence to back up that assertion: Prices were never really in free fall here after the financial crash, though activity has clearly picked up since.

In 2009, the neighborhood saw 76 sales, at an average price of $1.45 million, according to Streeteasy; in 2013, there were 140, at an average of $1.84 million.

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24 Fifth Avenue, #923A one-bedroom one-bath co-op in a prewar doorman building, listed at $755,000.(917) 449-4260CreditNicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

“I think tradition wins out,” said Kenneth Barkoff, a broker with Barkoff Residential who is busy in the area. “People still want to pay for traditional. Those kinds of glassy condos are great, but if you are looking for true value, stick with the center of town.”

What to Do

Otto, named in Italian for its address on East Eighth Street, is in the base of One Fifth. Hu Kitchen, which was recently advertising wild meatloaf and black mulberry kombucha, is at No. 78.

But many residents strike out east or west into denser retail areas; University Place has collegiate-flavor restaurants, while the Avenue of the Americas offers gourmet groceries at Lifethyme Natural Market and Citarella.

A pair of small theaters, Cinema Village (East 12th) and the Quad Cinema, (West 13th), are close by.

The Schools

The area is zoned for two top-ranked public elementary schools: No. 41, on West 11th Street, got an A from the city on its most recent report card. And No. 3, on Hudson Street, received an A. Simon Baruch, a middle school on East 21st Street, received an A. Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School is an option for high school. SAT averages in 2012 were 399 in reading, 418 in math, and 390 in writing, versus 434, 461, and 430 citywide.

The Commute

The area is awash in options. Four bus lines ply the avenue — the M1, M2, M3 and M5 — and subway stops surround it, offering the following lines: A, C, E, F, M, B, D, L, N, R, 4, 5 and 6. PATH stations are also close by.

“Hands down the best reason to live here is that it’s a transportation hub,” said Arash Najafi, a resident. He arrived here in 2010, from a Hell’s Kitchen share. His one-bedroom co-op at No. 45 cost $423,000. After a major renovation, he thinks it might be worth more than $600,000, based on a listing for a comparable apartment on his floor.

The History

Some of the area around the park was owned by Sailors’ Snug Harbor, which was planned in the early 1800s as a retirement community for mariners. The organization built One Fifth and other buildings, with the revenue paying for a large complex on Staten Island that exists today as a park.